How to Play Backgammon

Backgammon is a dice game that blends skill and luck in almost perfect harmony. You can study the skill side of Backgammon for many hours, improve your game greatly, and an unlucky roll of the dice will put you in a position that you can't recover from.

Backgammon originatedabout two thousand years ago in Persia. It travelled the world aboard ships and in trade caravans. Along the way, it developed several variations. Even more variations have been created for the online sites. Nevertheless, the basics remain the same.

Online backgammon features tournaments for players of all skill levels and gambling inclinations. Online sites also let you hone your skills by playing for free. The numbers online are created by the Random Number Generator, the same software that creates the numbers in all online games.

• Backgammon is played on a board. The board is divided into four quadrants.
  
• Within each quadrant are six points, or pips.
  
• The players set their pieces, called checkers in mirror image to each other.
  
• The players alternate rolling two dice.
  
• The two numbers that show up on the dice determine the number of points the player can move his pieces.
  
• Each number on the dice is considered separately.
  
• The players move their pieces around the board until they have all their pieces in their home field.
  
• Then they can begin to remove their pieces. This is called bearing off.
  
• The player who bears off all their pieces first wins.
  
• For gambling purposes there is a doubling cube. There are a number of variations regarding use of the doubling cube. You must learn the custom of the website or house.

• When you move a piece it can only land on three types of points. First, if you already have a checker on that point. Two, if the point is empty. Three, if your opponent has one checker on the point.
  
• If you land on a point with one of your opponent's checkers on it, you remove it and put it on the "bar", the space between the two halves of the board. This is a primary strategy for both you and your opponent. When a checker is "bumped" it must re-enter in the player's beginning quadrant. Also, when a player has a checker "on the bar" it must re-enter before any other checkers can be played.
  
• Clearly, since being bumped is so damaging to your winning chances, if you have only one checker on a point and can move a checker to "cover" it, it is very often the best play you can make. Covering protects your piece as the opponent may not land on a point that contains two or more of your checkers.
  
• You can land a checker on an empty point. This is often your only option.
  
• If you can play, according to the throw of the dice, you must play. This often exposes your checkers but you must make the play.
  
• When you throw non-doubles you can move two checkers. You move one checker the number on one die and the second checker the number on the other die.
  
• You can also move one checker. In that case you move first one of the numbers and then the other. Even if, after moving the sum of the dice, you can land on an allowable point, you must also "land" on an allowable point with the first move.
  
• Remember, you are forced to move if you can.
  
• If you roll doubles you can move one, two, three, or four checkers.

• When all of your checkers are on your home board you can start bearing off.
  
• You bear off any checker that is on a point that corresponds to your throw of the dice.
  
• If the throw is higher than the point on which your piece is, you may bear off a checker from the highest point.
  
• If you can't bear off, you still have to move if you can.
  
• If an opponent's checker is on the bar, it re-enters into your home board. In re-entering it can also bump one of your checkers that is about to be borne off!